“The Presidents” Video Guide
Buchanan-Grant
1. James Buchanan was the nation’s ___15th____ President serving from
__1856__ to ____1861__. He was a _______Democrat_________ from
______Pennsylvania______.
2. He is rated at the _____bottom______ of the list of President’s because his actions may
have hastened the ____________Civil War________, but he failed with
__________integrity____________.
3. He worked as a ___________Congressman_______, ______foreign minister_______,
____________senator___________, and __secretary of state_______ before becoming
President.
4. Buchanan was the nation’s only __________bachelor________ President, and his niece
Harriet Lane became the first _________First Lady_________ while serving as the White
House hostess for Buchanan.
5. He endorsed the _____Constitution________ written by the pro-slavery settlers in
Kansas made Buchanan appear to supporter of the South and a traitor to the North.
6. On November 6, 1860, _____Abraham Lincoln_______ was elected President.
7. Buchanan denied the legality of ______secession________ but did nothing to stop it.
8. Abraham Lincoln was the nation’s _______16th____ President, serving from
___1861___ to __1865___. He was a _______Republican______ from
______Illinois_________.
9. Lincoln wanted to ____preserve_______ and _____restore______ the Union before the
Civil War, but later becomes the Great __________Emancipator_____________.
10. His nicknames were _____Honest Abe________ and the ______rail splitter______
during the campaign for President.
11. Lincoln’s initial intention was to halt the ______expansion______ of slavery into new
territories.
12. Lincoln baited the South into starting the Civil War by sending supplies to
________Fort Sumter_______.
13. Lincoln taught himself about ___military strategy_______ to help him run the war as
Commander in Chief, but he still was not prepared for the troubles with his
______generals_________.
14. In February of 1862, personal tragedy struck Lincoln with the death of
__his son, Willie from typhoid fever_____.
15. From then on the war ________consumed______ Lincoln.
16. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the __Emancipation Proclamation____ to the
public.
17. Lincoln spoke for only ___2___ minutes in his _____Gettysburg Address__________,
but once again he redefined America’s commitment to the Declaration of
Independence.
18. Lincoln ran for re-election against his former general, ___George McClellan_____, in
1864. Lincoln won re-election with _________56%_____ of the vote.
19. Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Grant on ______April 9, 1865___________, ending
the war.
20. Lincoln was assassinated on __April 14, 1865_______ while attending the play
“Our American Cousin” by ____________John Wilkes Booth__________.
21. The assassination of Lincoln was part of a larger ________conspiracy________
that involved Secretary of State _____William Seward_________, General
_____Ulysses S. Grant______, and Vice President ____Andrew Johnson_____.
22. Andrew Johnson was the nation’s ______17th_______ President, serving from
__1865____ to ____1869___. He was a _____Democrat_______ from
___Tennessee_______.
23. Johnson was probably the most _racist___ President we’ve had.
24. The Radical Republicans believed the South should be ________punished________ and
freed slaves protected and made _____citizens_____ and allowed to vote.
25. Johnson came up with his own _________Reconstruction________ plan that did not
punish the South. Freed slaves got little protection and were not allowed to
_____vote____ under Johnson’s plan.
26. ____Congress___ passed Reconstruction Acts of its own, including the ____Freedmen’s
Bureau________. Johnson _____vetoed_____ it.
27. Johnson vetoed ________29_______ of Congress’s bills. Congress overrode Johnson’s
vetoes _______15_______ times.
28. Johnson was ___________impeached________ by Congress for violating the
_________Tenure of Office_________________. He survived by ______1_____ vote.
29. He was the only former President to be elected to the _________Senate_______.
30. Ulysses S. Grant was the nation’s ____18th_______ President, serving from
___1869____ to ___1877___. He was a ____Republican_____ from
__________Ohio________.
31. At the time he was the ___youngest_____ man elected and the first _West Pointer____.
Grant was elected with a large percent of the ____black____ vote.
32. Grant appointed members of his cabinet who were his ______friends_______ and not
qualified to hold the positions.
33. Grant launched a war on terror by passing _____Anti-Klan__________ laws against the
________Ku Klux Klan______________.
34. Late in Grant’s first term, a spade of ______scandal______ began to emerge, turning
Grant’s name into a synonym for corruption.
35. Despite the scandals, Grant was re-elected in _________1872_______.
36. In ____1873_____ an economic depression in the North contributed to a shift in public
opinion about the problems of Reconstruction in the South.
37. Another confounding domestic problem of Grant’s day were problems with
____Indians____________.
38. In one conflict with Indians __General George Armstrong Custer____ was annihilated on
the banks of the Big Horn River in a battle known as __Custer’s Last Stand_____.
39. Grant’s administration is known as one of the most ______failed___________
presidencies in the history of the United States, ranking at the bottom.
40. Grant was never credited with steps he took for ______black______ equality.